Xbox One X Project Scorpio Edition Pre-Orders Are Nearly Sold Out

Dave Thier
, ContributorI write about video games and technology.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Credit: Microsoft

The Xbox One X Project Scorpio Edition.

If you want to get your hands on an Xbox One X, you'll probably have another chance before the fall. If you want to order an Xbox One X "Project Scorpio Edition," however, you'll likely have to act fast. The Project Scorpio Edition is a special collector's edition that harkens back to the console's longtime code name and comes with a slightly different texture and an exclusive vertical stand. Amazon sold out of its initial allocation pretty quickly, and other retailers have been following suit ever since pre-orders went live yesterday afternoon. Right now, I'm still seeing them at Target and Best Buy (Update: sold out), so move quick. We'll update if they turn up elsewhere.

An important note that may not have been entirely clear to the casual observer: if you are ordering an Xbox One X right now, you are ordering the Xbox One X Project Scorpio Edition, even if the art or text on some retail websites doesn't reflect that. That's according to Microsoft's Mike Ybarra on Twitter, who confirms that the Project Scorpio Edition is currently the only Xbox One X available for pre-order. If you're uninterested in collectibles, rest assured that this is the exact same console with some minor aesthetic differences, the most obvious of which will be the green "Project Scorpio" text on the front of the controller.

The Project Scorpio Edition is a clever way to push a few fans who might not otherwise have pulled the trigger to get a console now rather than later, but I'm cautious about sales on the Xbox One X overall. We'll have to wait until we have the console in our homes to actually scope out its utility, but in some ways, that's the problem. Without 4K channels, TV ads can't do much heavy lifting, and the only reliable way to show people what it really looks like is to hope they wander by at a physical retailer and stay long enough to get very close to the screen. And because all Xbox One X games will also play on the Xbox One, there can be no magic piece of software that makes it a must buy. I imagine it will do perfectly fine as a premium differentiation, but not much more than that.